June 29, 2010 Decisions and Freeze and cease trade orders Securities

Montréal – On June 25, 2010, further to information exchanged between the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the AMF obtained freeze and cease trade orders from the Bureau de décision et de révision (the “Bureau”) to halt a possible case of market manipulation.

The Bureau ordered a freeze of the funds, securities and other assets of Carol McKeown, Daniel F. Ryan, Downshire Capital Inc., Meadow Vista Financial Corp., McKeown Baboon Building Family Trust, Herbert Baboon Building Family Trust, McKeown Baboon Family Trust and McKeown/Ryan Principal Residence Trust. As a result, approximately $3,000,000 was frozen in various accounts held in Québec.

The Bureau also issued a cease trade order against Carol McKeown, Daniel F. Ryan, Downshire Capital Inc. and Meadow Vista Financial Corp., prohibiting them from carrying on any activity in respect of a transaction in securities and from pursuing activities as securities advisers.

This intervention is further to an AMF investigation which revealed that since the summer of 2009, Carol McKeown, president of Downshire Capital Inc. and Meadow Vista Financial Corp., and Daniel F. Ryan, one of the companies’ key officers, had been posting recommendations on the www.pennystockchaser.com This link will open in a new window website about the security of Biocentric Energy Holdings Inc., a company whose shares trade on the Pink Sheets market, whereas neither McKeown or Ryan was registered as a securities adviser or dealer. The AMF investigation also revealed that Downshire Capital had sold its shares of Biocentric at the same time as they were being touted on www.pennystockchaser.com This link will open in a new window.

Effective co-operation with SEC

On June 9, 2010, the AMF received a request for assistance from the SEC. The SEC investigation showed that since April 2009, Carol McKeown and Daniel F. Ryan had been touting different U.S. microcap companies, including Biocentric, on www.pennystockchaser.com This link will open in a new window and had received shares of these companies as compensation for their touting. The respondents subsequently sold their shares, thereby profiting from the increase in share volume and price. When making their recommendations, they did not reveal that they had sold their shares.

The AMF requested that the Bureau intervene rapidly, as the pennystockchaser.com This link will open in a new window website was still operating on June 25 and, according to information from the SEC, as at June 23, 2010, the market manipulation appeared to be ongoing. Moreover, on June 23, 2010, a Florida judge handed down several decisions in this matter which are now public. The SEC and AMF sought to obtain a preventive freeze order from the Bureau to freeze the respondents’ funds held in Québec and block any attempts to withdraw them.

The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) is the regulatory and oversight body for Québec’s financial sector.

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